i6 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



decade. The massive timbers to be seen in old Chinese temples 

 and houses are now unobtainable from the native trees of 

 China. 



Since the scarcity of timber is so great, every kind of tree 

 found in the thickly populated regions furnishes wood of 

 some value, but for the purpose of this chapter it suffices to 

 give a brief account of the more important kinds and those 

 most generally useful. 



By far the most important " timber " in China is, of course, 

 the stems of the Bamboo. The Jesuit priest, Trigault, in a 

 work on China, published in 1615, states : " They have a kind 

 of reed called Bambu by the Portuguese. It is almost as hard 

 as iron. The largest kind is scarcely encompassed with two 

 hands. It is hollow inside and presents many joints outside. 

 The Chinese use it for pillars, shafts of lances, and for 600 other 

 domestic purposes." 



Although three centuries have elapsed since the above 

 quotation was written it applies equally to the conditions 

 of the present day, for the uses to which the Bamboo is 

 put in China are indeed limitless. It supplies many of the 

 multifarious needs of the people with whose everyday 

 life, from birth to death, it is inseparably entwined. From 

 Bamboo stems are fashioned the various household utensils, 

 furniture, the house itself, many agricultural implements, masts 

 and gear for boats, rafts, ropes, bridges, irrigation-wheels, 

 water-pipes, gas-pipes, tubes for raising brine, sedan-chairs, 

 tobacco and opium-pipes, bird-cages, snares for entrapping 

 insects, birds, and animals, umbrellas, raincoats, hats, soles 

 for shoes, under-shirts, sandals, combs, musical instruments, 

 ornamental vases, boxes, and works of art, the pen (brush) 

 to write with, the paper to write upon, everything, in fact, 

 useful and ornamental, from the hats of the highest officials 

 to the pole with which the coolie carries his load. Formerly 

 the records of the race were written on bamboo tablets which 

 were strung together at one end like a fan. Records of this 

 description, dug up in a.d. 281, after having been buried for 

 600 years, were found to contain the history of Tsin from 

 784 B.C., and incidentally also that of China for 1500 years 

 before that date. 



